Fourteen baseball umpires are suing seven manufacturers of
baseball paraphernalia for "making money off their likeness
without their permission," according to BUSINESS WEEK.
Manufacturers says the umps "are incidental to their products and
that the umps' images are often unrecognizable" (BUSINESS WEEK,
7/24 issue)....The Oilers are "using their most aggressive
marketing strategy in years," according to Carlton Thompson of
the HOUSTON CHRONICLE. Two commercials produced by the Cohen
Agency in Houston are running locally. Oilers Senior VP/Marketing
Don MacLachan: "We wanted to remind the city of Houston about
some of the things we did in the offseason. The message we're
trying to convey is improvement" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE,
7/15)....Bradford Travel Service and Pure Tech Inc, two PA-based
companies, signed a three-year contract with the Bills to put
together a cheerleading squad. The Jills, the first cheerleading
group to unionize, was forced to disband after Mighty Taco did
not renew their sponsorship contract (Mult., 7/15)....Shoe
manufacturer and retailer Brown Group announced it has bought Le
Coq Sportif brand of footwear and apparel from Adidas AG of
Germany. Terms were not disclosed (N.Y. POST, 7/15)....Patriots
quarterback Drew Bledsoe completed filming a McDonald's
commercial in L.A. last week (BOSTON GLOBE, 7/16)....Quentin
Tarantino will join producer Lawrence Bender and Miramax Films
co-chair Harvey Weinstein to form A Band Apart Commercials, a new
commercial production unit (DAILY VARIETY, 7/14)....Bally
Entertainment Corp. completed a debt exchange allowing them to
"spin off its fitness center business, Bally's Health & Tennis,
which has 340 facilities" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 7/15)....John
Horner and Rory Holloway, the two men Mike Tyson has overseeing
his business dealings, are featured in the N.Y. DAILY NEWS. The
two have plans to put Tyson on the Internet and are currently
exploring several other business deals (N.Y. DAILY NEWS,
7/17)....NFL Properties has produced "Touchdown!," an interactive
special advertising section which will be inserted in SI For Kids
and Boys Life this fall. "Touchdown!" will appear monthly from
September to December (NFL)...."ET" profiled Wayne Gretzky's new
L.A. Gear street hockey ad. Gretzky, who reportedly plays a
minimal role in the commercial: "When you're dealing with a
hockey player, you're not dealing with an actor" ("ET," 7/15).
